If Google is the search engine giant, then the second place goes to YouTube. Still, when it comes to the marketing perspective, only 5% of businesses make use of YouTube videos. This simply means that it is more likely that your competitors are also not making use of this platform to market their products and services, which is definitely a good news! So if you have any plans to incorporate YouTube videos into your marketing strategy, you need to be sure that they are well-optimized for local search engine optimization.

Optimizing the website is what comes first to our mind when we hear the term local SEO. There is nothing wrong as it important to make your website ready for the local market. If you don’t have local SEO strategy in place then chances are more that your website will not make much profits. So by taking steps to make YouTube videos and your website optimized for local SEO, you are boosting your chances to be found and noticed by the target customers. So what are you waiting for? Apply these steps and get results.

1. Include keyword in the title

There is no doubt that YouTube videos greatly depend on keywords. What people search for and what they type while searching for videos is really important to care for. So it becomes important to understand your customers and to know what do they expect from your videos. This will help you decide how you can deliver to their expectations through the headline.

You need to be quick to impress the customers. So make sure you include the words like “tips”, “How to’s”, “guide”, “tutorials” in your headline. This will quickly click among your customers as they will know that there is something that they want to know or it can help them solve a problem. In short, they will find value in the video.

If you are a florist, then you can have videos with a headline like “How to make a floral arrangement for wedding” which your potential customers may search more. Or if you run a beauty salon, then you can post a video with possible customer search queries like “How to get rid of blackheads naturally”.

Just make sure that your video headline should be around 66 characters so that it can fit well when displayed on the SERPs of Google.

If you have any plans to get deep into keyword research then it is important to understand that when it comes to keywords, Google has different algorithms, say different plans for websites and YouTube videos. Making a video and writing a content is quite different. You need to put in more efforts and give more time to create a video compared to writing a content. So for the same reason, Google approaches the video in a different manner, unlike a written content.

2. Improve local SEO with Geo-tagging and NAP data

For any video to be successful, it has to reach the local market first. You can achieve it using a number of strategies but still, the best way to do it is by making use of NAP in the video description. Here NAP stands for Name-Address-Phone number. Along with that, make sure you add a small overview of your video within the video description. Adding call to actions along with company location in the description is also important. So in simple terms, the NAP data will help YouTube recognize your business and rank it better in the search results.

Another important feature is geotagging. It helps to connect your video to a particular geographic location. Suppose you have shot the video at your home or office, then you can simply add the longitude and latitude coordinates to the video. This will help you boost the local search engine optimization efforts you are making. Adding geo tags are easy if you are shooting the video using a phone as it comes with built-in GPS settings. In case you have no geotags added to your video, you can do it using the video editing software.

Another best way to do geotagging is on the videos directly through YouTube. So all you have to do is to go to video settings and select the Advanced Settings tab. There you will find the option of Video location with a pop-up map. Choose the location there and it will add up the coordinates.

3. Include lengthy description

Once you have made the video title the next thing you must do is make the video description. You can go through the video to come up with right description. With 5000 character limit, you will be able to come up with a nice description included with the keyword.

The transcription can be added to the description box. But in case you have plans to add the video to your website, you will want to keep the video description on both places different due to the issue of duplicate content. So in such scenario, it would be better to add a good description for the video on the YouTube and then come up with a transcription when you embed it into the website.

4. Add the website URL and tag the video

Another good step you can take is to add the website URL in the description box. YouTube will simply make the URL clickable if you add it to the description box. This way a number of people will click on the link and they will be redirected to the website.

Just below the description box, there are tags. It would be necessary to optimize those tags for your YouTube videos. You can make use of right words in the tags related to your industry as they are just like keywords. Make use of geo-modified terms which can help you target the right place for your business.

Like any other content, promoting YouTube videos is very important to drive in traffic. So make efforts to share the video on different social media platforms for sure.

Are you focusing on Local search engine optimization strategy for your business? If not, then it is time you opt for it and get the maximum out of it.

Author Bio:

Christopher Meloni is a Marketing Manager at Kodematix. Apart from his profession, he also has a passion for blogging and he likes to explore new and innovative methods of marketing within his field. Connect with Christopher on Twitter.